Not Separated at Birth
by dogman15
Summary: Zac lies in bed at night, contemplating his being stuck with Wheezie. He thinks back to the day Quetzal let them experience being apart by use of the pink crystals, and also discovers some things about themselves.
1. In Bed

**This is my attempt to logically explain phenomena I observed in the show back when I used to watch it as a 10-year-old. If you dislike writers who write for "children's" material, then don't read this. I'm actually somewhat apprehensive about posting this, so no flames, please. One last note: I wrote this about three years ago, and it's been sitting on my hard drive since then. I went back and revised it slightly for content, but that's it. Therefore, this does not necessarily reflect my current story-writing ability.**

My name is Zak. You may have heard of me, or you may not have. You may not even know who I am, but there are some things you should know. For starters, I have a sister named Wheezie. I'm attached to her in more than just the figurative sense of the word. You see, I'm a dragon. Technically, though, Wheezie and I are one two-headed dragon, but we're both individuals with independent personalities and thoughts. Our thoughts are so independent, in fact, that she and I disagree on various matters from time to time, sometimes vehemently.

One time, we disagreed so much (about how and where to work on building a playground,) that our teacher, Quetzal, offered us a way to physically separate. Needless to say, at the time I was quite excited and intrigued at this prospect, but I did not show it outwardly at the time. Wheezie and I did our separate tasks on the construction, but in the end, we decided it was better to be together. Now that I look back on that day, I wonder if it was really the best decision. Even now, I silently contemplate going back to Quetzal and asking if I (we) could keep the crystals he has. Of course, this would require Wheezie's cooperation, of which I don't have the initiative to ask for.

This is what I now think about as I lie in bed at night. Now that I am older, I find myself thinking about more complex matters, such as our shared biology and physiology. The most notable thing that got into my head then was how to do separate things. Right now, Wheezie was asleep, and snoring at that. I felt like I needed a drink of water – my throat was feeling parched – but I feared that there was nothing I could do about it. All my (or should I say, _our_) life, this had been a problem for me, and I imagine that Wheezie had the same problems herself when I was asleep. I got to thinking that night if there was something I could do about it.

Wheezie was sleeping next to me (obviously) in the same bed. Right then, I boldly attempted something that I had never tried before. Using memories made when I had a body separate from hers (and a left arm), I used my brain and my nerves, mentally reached across to her side of our body, and found her (left) hand. (I know this sounds weird, but I swear to you this is how I actually did it.) At finding this, I was surprised to learn that I could also now control our entire body! _It must only work when one of us is asleep,_ I thought.

Doing my best to contain my excitement, and relishing the ability to control a whole body once again, I proceeded to get out of (our) bed. To my dismay, I found Wheezie's neck and head holding me back. If I continued getting up, her neck would limply follow, and she'd wake up. I thought to myself, _A neck brace sure would be handy right now._ Instead, I came up with an alternate, temporary solution. Using Wheezie's arm, I held her neck/head up. I savored the feeling of getting out of bed on my side by my will as my (excuse me, _our_) feet touched the floor. Wheezie was still asleep.

Still holding her neck up, I walked into our bathroom and grabbed a paper cup. I filled it with water from the faucet and drank the whole thing with my right arm. Feeling proud of myself for what I had discovered and done, I smiled as I turned to head back to bed. That's when Wheezie woke up.

**This story only has three chapters. It was inspired by the episode titled "Not Separated at Birth" Season 1, Episode 13, 10/6/99. Should I upload the next chapter?**


	2. Discovery

**And this chapter was published because someone subscribed to the story. _(Why am I doing this?)_**

"Zaky!" Wheezie cried, startling me and severing my contact with her side. "What's going on? Why are we in the bathroom?" she asked. I panicked. How was I supposed to answer her?

"Uhh…" I hesitated. "Maybe I, uh, we sleepwalked in here?"

"Don't give me that crap, Zak. You did something – _consciously_ – while I was asleep to get us out of bed. I already have a theory as to what you did," she continued, jabbing a finger in my direction, "but I want to hear it from you. What happened?" she finished. Again I stumbled with my words before finally answering.

"Well, um; Okay, I'll confess. While you were asleep, I got thirsty and wanted a drink, so I gained control of your half of the body and came in here, the bathroom, to get a drink. I was kinda hoping you wouldn't wake up."

"You _gained control_ of my half of the body?!" Wheezie cried. "Zachary, how long have you been doing this?"

"Well, this would be the first," I answered.

After a pause that seemed like forever, she finally responded. "Zak, I just don't know what to say," she confessed.

"Look, Wheezie, I'm sorry I did this, I… I was just curious."

"No, no – it's not that," she began. "I'm just as amazed as I'm sure you were. But… does this mean I can do it too?" she asked.

"Um, yes. If my guess is correct, either one of us can do it, but only if the other lets them or is asleep," I concluded.

"Wow," was all she said. "Well," she yawned, "I'm still really tired. Let's go back to bed; and no funny business from _either_ of us, got it?"

"Got it," I affirmed.

"Good." And with that, we fell into the all-too-familiar feeling of sharing steps. It was a pattern: I took the right foot step; she took the left foot step. By the time we got back to bed, I was really wishing we had Quetzal's crystals. Despite how much I loved my sister, a part of me had an urging desire to live a life separate from her. Thinking back to the day with the playground construction, it occurred to me that it wasn't even really necessary for us to (physically) join back together at all. While we were separate, any problems generated by the separation were insignificant to the problems I now faced with a physical union. So what if I didn't know how to make a drum trampoline have just the right amount of tension for a bounce? (I now believe I correctly know how to do this.) So what if Wheezie didn't know she should've read the instructions for building a xylophone slide? I'm sure she knows how to now.

And what if I wanted to date girls in a few years? Wheezie can't be there when I do that! I had to do something. First thing tomorrow, I would discuss these things with Wheezie. We would go to our school in the morning and ask Quetzal if we could have the crystals which he had no personal use for. Heck, I was willing to _buy_ them from him if I had to. And what is up with that _completely_ useless poem? Is it even really necessary? Don't the crystals work by themselves? Why did we have to clank them together? What do the sound waves of our voices have to do with it? Is it a mental thing? Why did we have to fly into the air? So many questions, yet I would have to wait until tomorrow to answer them all.

I looked at the clock on my nightstand, wishing I could turn over in bed. _I'm sure that always sleeping on my back every night of my life has had some sort of adverse effect on my or our health, _I thought. _Here it is, almost 2:00 am, and I'm thinking about separating from my sister._

I finally closed my eyes, realizing that staring at the ceiling was worse than at least attempting to fall asleep. _Maybe this is just a part of growing up, but why were we not separate at birth?_ I wondered. These and other thoughts filled my head as I finally drifted off to sleep.

**Yeah, there's a _Title Drop_ for you; go look that up on TV Tropes. As the author, I'm not really keeping track of any and all tropes I may be utilizing. Should I continue? The third chapter is the longest. (I seem to have a reputation for exceedingly short chapters.)**


	3. Revelation

**Third chapter; stuff happens. No spoilers (as if you cared).**

The next morning, we woke up at 8:30, since there was no school that day. I remembered my thoughts from last night.

"Wheezie, I know what I want to do today," I said.

"Meet Ord and Cassie?" she asked.

"No, they're probably busy," I replied.

"Hm," she muttered, sounding suspiciously inquisitive. "Oh, I know! You're hoping Emmy and Max will come today, aren't you?"

"Wheezie, they haven't been to Dragon Land in months. I think they're becoming busier with things in their own life."

"Oh yeah, huh? Emmy did say they were starting 6th grade in their world." She paused. "So what was it you wanted to do today?"

"Wheezie, I want to go to Quetzal and talk to him about our biology. I have some important questions I want to ask him, too."

"Well gosh, Zak, what kind of things?" she asked.

"I'll tell you on the way there," I replied.

By the time we got to the school, I had filled Wheezie in on the details. I reminded her of the insignificance of the construction-day problems, my desire to eventually meet other girls, and the puzzling questions about and mysteries behind Quetzal's crystals. She agreed with me at every point, however reluctantly to the construction-day issue. The "other girls" idea caught her (by surprise/off guard), and she admitted she hadn't thought much about the crystals since that day.

Wheezie and I landed on the school's front step and opened the door. Quetzal was doing deskwork in his office, so we knocked on his door.

"¿Quien es?" he asked, questioning his visitor's identity.

"It's us, Zak and Wheezie," I answered.

"Come in," he responded.

We walked into his office, where he was writing something. He put down whatever he was writing with and looked up at us. "What can I help you two with?" He paused, and then added "Niños?"

"Quetzal," I started, "we have some questions we were hoping you could answer."

"What about?"

Wheezie continued. "There's a lot of stuff we still don't know about ourselves, about our body."

"Our biology, if you will," I added.

"Hmm," he thought for a moment. "Very important questions you both bring up. It is not right to hide this information from you anymore. You two are getting older, and there are some things you should know about your upbringing and life to come.

"Were there, by chance, any other specific _preguntas_ you had in mind before I continue?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," I replied. "For starters, what if I want to meet other girls soon? Or what if Wheezie wants to meet guys? She and I can't be together when that happens."

"Any other questions?" he asked.

"Mm-hmm," said Wheezie. "What's up with those crystals we used a couple months back? Why did we have to recite a poem, fly into the air, and clink 'em together?" I was pleased to see that she had caught onto my notions rather quickly. "That's all," she concluded.

Quetzal thought for a full ten seconds before continuing.

"The answers I have may not come easily to you, but I will give them nonetheless. Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes," we both said.

"Very well. As you can probably guess, you two were born like this. Your parents, who are normal dragons, were very surprised and pleased with you, and they made the choice to keep you.

"About the crystals, I will tell you this now: it is not necessary to clink them together. You also need not fly into the air or recite _un poema_. Really, all you must do is be holding the crystals in either hand, and think about what you want to do, whether it be separating or joining."

My eyes widened at the information he had told us. I could see that Wheezie was amazed, as well. "Can we try it now?" Wheezie blurted.

"Actually, Quetzal, I was wondering if we could possibly purchase the crystals from you," I proposed.

"Don't be stupid, Zak. Quetzal's not going to give us something rare that only he has possession of," she retaliated.

I responded, "He wouldn't be giving them to us! I'd pay for them!"

"¡Niños! Niños! Por favor, settle down! You don't need to worry about any imagined rarity of the crystals, they can be found in a cave about a day's flight from here. To save you the trouble, I will give you the two that I have."

And with that, he opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out the two pink crystals we had used originally. I was elated. It seemed like my whole life had led up to this one point, what I had always wanted was finally being given to me. I could sense that Wheezie was very happy, too.

"Thank you sooo much, Quetzal. Muchas gracias," I said.

"Yeah, thanks Quetzal!" added Wheezie. Then came the phrase which I knew was coming yet I also dreaded: "Looooove it!" she screamed.

"Please, Wheezie," I said tersely. "Never. Do that. Again."

"Well when we're separate, you won't have to worry about it," she smiled.

"De nada," said Quetzal, which meant "You're welcome" but literally translated as "of nothing." "If you two were any younger, I'd be concerned about you getting along right now, but I think you're old enough to handle problems maturely. ¡Adiós!" He finished. "¡Ten un buen día!"

"Bye, Quetzal! Thanks again!" we both said.

Once we had exited the school, we had trouble deciding what to do. "What should we do first?" I asked. "Show our friends or split?"

"Hm," thought Wheezie. "Let's split first and then surprise them!"

"Okay," I said. It sounded like a good idea.

We found an open field, devoid of any people who might get freaked out. "So what did Quetzal say? Was it some mind thing?" Wheezie asked.

"He said all we had to do was hold the crystals and think about separating." I paused. "However, now that I think about the fridge logic, that doesn't make much more sense than the clinking, flying, and rhyming. I… um… Gosh, let's just do it and worry about the science later, alright?"

"Okey-dokey, artichoke," said Wheezie. I glared at her, making her shirk back.

"Please don't say that, either," I stated. "Do you even know what an artichoke is, anyway?"

"Yes, it's some sort of vegetable," she answered.

"Good. Now, you hold this," I said, pulling the crystals out of our pouch and handing her one, "and I'll hold this. Ready? Think about splitting."

Before I knew what happened, we had separated and I was standing next to Wheezie. We each had two arms, two legs, two wings, and our own tail. We smiled at each other, placing the crystals in our pouches. That's pouch**es**, plural.

"To Ord's?" Wheezie asked.

"To Ord's!" I agreed. And with that, we took off in the direction of Ord's house.

**Errrgh.... Yeah. So I just wrote a small fan fiction based off a kid's show. I think it's a speculative fiction. It might also be a "Continuation" or "Original Flavor". Seriously, go look those up on TV Tropes.**


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